Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to build spring training stadium in Scottsdale

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community announced an agreement to build a new spring training facility for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. “This is a tremendous opportunity for the Salt River Community, for the East Valley and for the Cactus League,” said Mayor Jim Lane.

The community will build an 11,000-seat stadium and 12 practice fields on a 140-acre site near the intersection of the Loop 101 and Indian Bend Road. It is slated to open for the 2011 spring training season. The Diamondbacks and Rockies currently train in Tucson.

Scottsdale has a long history of spring training, and Scottsdale Stadium has hosted spring training games since 1956. The Giants have played there since 1982 and have an agreement to stay in Scottsdale until 2025. Scottsdale estimates the economic impact from visitors who attended Giants spring training games was more than $21.6 million.

Barney’s Opening at Fashion Square Mall slated for Oct. 15^th.

Slated to open mid-October, Barneys will occupy two levels and nearly 65,000 square feet of space at Fashion Square, joining Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom and a collection of luxury retailers. The Downtown Scottsdale location will include a staircase, a glass-box entrance and a Fred’s restaurant on the second level. Barneys picked Fashion Square as the best Valley location.

U.S. News & World Report, in its June 28 issue, identified Fashion Square as one of the nation’s top 10 most profitable malls with sales per square foot of $618 and a 5 percent vacancy rate. The largest 650 U.S. shopping centers have average sales of about $420 per square foot with occupancy at 8 percent. Other merchants opening in the new wing at Fashion Square include True Religion, Forever 21, Stash Collections, Ed Hardy, J.Crew and LTJ Arthur. An Italian restaurant, Marcella’s, and Modern Steak, a new Sam Fox concept eatery, are also set to open this fall. For more information go to: http://www.fashionsquare.com/

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